Recovering

I woke up this morning to bright sunshine at 5:30AM and headed out for an easy 10 miler. As my legs hit the ground they immediately began to scream at me. It was kind of surprising actually. I did 17 miles yesterday and tried to push some of the middle miles (with little success due to a big headwind), but it was nothing that should have killed me. Maybe this was just the cumulative effect of a pretty tough week of running last week and no rest for the weary this week. But hey...that's what the recovery run is for...to recover. I added some strides at the end and that did seem to wake the legs up a little.

For anyone who wants to consistently put in good mileage weeks, let me make one simple suggestion. Go big on Monday. If you start your week off with a big number, it makes the rest of the week so much easier to manage from a mileage perspective. I know mileage shouldn't be the most important thing in a training regimen, but for many of us, it's how we define our weeks. In the elevator on the way up to work, no one asks you how many miles at tempo did you put in last week. It's how many miles did you run last week. Well, actually it's probably more like "how long is the marathon you'll be running this weekend" but occasionally you'll get something a little more running savvy.

I've devised my own plan for how I'll be "getting in the mileage" this summer. Actually I've used it all year long and it is working out pretty good for me. The concept is that the week is made up of 7 days. You take one day out of that right away and reserve it for your long run. That, for me, is on Friday. That leaves you with 6 days left. You break those remaining 6 days into 2 day segments. Each of those three 2-day segments should be pretty close in mileage to each other. So at the beginning of each week you figure out how many miles each of your pods will be and then go to it. Right now, I'm working right around 27 miles per pod. That usually puts me pretty close to 100 miles for the week (27 * 3 = 78 + LR = 100). I like it because it keeps me honest so that I don't sluff off early in the week or totally frontload a week and then have crappy workouts but still get the mileage in.

When I started this back in January, it was a big struggle to get 20 mile pods done. That was all easy paced runs and it really beat me up. However, what I've learned is that a couple of weeks of being tired usually leads to some adaptation and that allows you to move forward. From those humble beginnings, I've moved up to consistently being around 100 miles and getting some good quality workouts mixed in as well. It's tough to be patient with your training, but if you want long-term results, it's the only way to go. For me, the 18 week training plan no longer works. For me, it's more like a 3 year plan, and it's only just beginning.